LARAMIE, Wyoming (CNN) – It may sound like a tongue twister—but it's for real.

For this one Friday night, Pistol Pete—the University of Wyoming's gun-totin' larger than life cowboy mascot—was without his holster and western-style cap guns at Barack Obama's evening event at the campus' Arena Auditorium.

After thanking Pete for rallying the troops around the arena with his trademark yellow, over-sized cowboy flag and giant foam hat, the Illinois senator informed the crowd that Pete wasn't quite the same and that secret service had confiscated his pistols.

Pete—who, by day, is a 23-year-old senior named Chris Carroll—said the secret service had removed the weapons from his costume's storage room after dogs discovered the immitation Colt 45's in an afternoon sweep of the building.

Seeing the humor with the rest of the crowd and press corps, traveling spokeswoman Jen Psaki said, "It turns out Pistol Pete's fake guns posed an immediate threat to hope in Wyoming, thus making it essential that we confiscate his fake weapons."

It probably goes without saying, but hope has been a central theme of Obama's campaign for the presidency.